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Dr. Chrysoula I. Liakou MD, PhD
- Treated online: Yes, for reviews, renewals and adjustments of established treatment. The doctor assesses control, technique and triggers by video and prescribes inhalers when appropriate; an attack, breathlessness at rest, a reliever that is not working or reduced baby movements need emergency or maternity care.
- What it is: chronic inflammation of the airways that narrows them in response to triggers; in pregnancy about 1 in 3 women with asthma worsen, usually in the second and third trimesters, and uncontrolled asthma is linked to pre-eclampsia, premature birth and low birth weight.
- Control check: using a reliever 3 or more times a week, waking at night with wheeze or cough, or any limit on activity means asthma control is slipping and treatment needs stepping up, not watching.
- Medicines: inhaled steroids, long-acting relievers, salbutamol and montelukast are all continued in pregnancy; short courses of steroid tablets are used for a significant flare, because a severe attack is the greater danger; reflux, rhinitis and smoking are the treatable aggravators.
- Labour and after: attacks during labour are rare, relievers are used as normal, all asthma medicines are compatible with breastfeeding, and asthma returns to its pre-pregnancy pattern within about 3 months of the birth.
- Emergency: call 112 for an asthma attack where the reliever is not helping within a few minutes, you cannot finish a sentence in one breath, or lips or fingertips look blue, and tell the call handler you are pregnant.
If you are severely breathless, cannot finish a sentence in one breath, your reliever is not helping within a few minutes, or your lips or fingertips look blue or grey, call 112 now, sit upright, keep using your reliever as your action plan directs, and tell the call handler you are pregnant. Contact your midwife or maternity unit urgently if your baby’s movements have reduced or changed. Online care is for keeping asthma controlled between attacks, never during one.
Can asthma in pregnancy be treated online?
Yes, for the medicines most people with asthma use. Inhaled corticosteroid preventers and salbutamol relievers have decades of reassuring safety experience in pregnancy, and international asthma guidance advises continuing them throughout.[1] Uncontrolled asthma, not asthma treatment, is the greater risk to a baby. A few add-on medicines need individual review, so confirm your exact plan with a doctor.
Is asthma medication safe in pregnancy?
It is worth being precise rather than sweeping here, because “all asthma medicines are completely harmless” would be an overclaim. The honest position is this: the everyday inhaled treatments are considered safe and are actively recommended in pregnancy; short courses of steroid tablets are used when a flare-up demands them, because the risk of a severe attack outweighs the risk of the treatment; and a small number of add-on options, such as leukotriene tablets or biologic injections, are continued or adjusted case by case with a doctor rather than by default.[1] What is never recommended is quietly stopping your preventer because you are worried about the baby. That single decision, made with the best of intentions, is behind a large share of pregnancy asthma flare-ups.[2]
How an online consultation helps with asthma in pregnancy
- A pregnancy-specific asthma review: the doctor checks the markers of control (night waking, reliever use, activity limits) against what pregnancy is doing to your breathing, and adjusts the plan with your antenatal care in mind.
- Straight answers about your medicines: medicine by medicine, not a vague reassurance. You hear which of your inhalers to continue, what the evidence says, and which add-ons need a closer look.
- An updated written action plan: what to take daily, how to step up early when a cold or pollen season hits, and exactly when to call 112, agreed in writing so you are not deciding mid-symptom.
- Renewals after a real review: established preventer and reliever inhalers can be renewed after a control check, so you never run low while pregnant, with concerns flagged to your midwife rather than papered over.
What the doctor checks in an online asthma in pregnancy consultation
The review follows the same control markers international guidance uses, with pregnancy layered on top.[1] Expect questions on:
- How many weeks pregnant you are, and who is providing your antenatal care, so advice and any prescriptions fit around your existing team.
- Reliever use: how many days in the past month you needed your reliever. Three or more times a week signals slipping control and prompts a treatment review, not a routine renewal.[2]
- Night waking and daily limits: chest symptoms at night, and anything you now avoid because of your breathing rather than your bump.
- Flare-ups and steroid courses: any attacks, urgent visits or steroid tablet courses since pregnancy began, which change the conversation from renewal to step-up.
- Your exact inhalers: names, strengths and doses, shown on camera, because brand names change between EU countries and “the purple one” is not a prescription.
- Inhaler technique, watched live: you demonstrate with your own device; small errors quietly cut the dose reaching your lungs exactly when you need it most.[5]
- Triggers: pollen and allergies (treating hay fever in pregnancy makes asthma easier to control), smoking and vaping, reflux, which pregnancy often worsens, and workplace exposures.
- Vaccination status: flu and whooping cough vaccination are recommended in pregnancy in most European countries, and respiratory infections are the classic trigger for serious flare-ups.[2]
- Warning-sign check: baby’s movements, chest pain, leg swelling and sudden breathlessness, because not everything that feels like asthma in pregnancy is asthma.
Have your inhalers, your action plan and any peak-flow readings within reach when the call starts. If you keep a symptom diary, even a rough one on your phone, bring it: patterns decide treatment.
Will pregnancy make my asthma worse?
Not necessarily. Asthma behaves unpredictably in pregnancy: roughly a third of women find it worsens, a third improve, and a third notice no change, with worsening most often reported in the middle and later months.[1] Because the direction is impossible to predict, guidance treats every pregnancy as a reason for closer asthma review, not a reason to relax it.
Why good asthma control protects your baby
Your baby’s oxygen supply depends on yours. Poorly controlled asthma has been linked with higher risks of pre-eclampsia, premature birth, low birth weight and growth restriction, while well-controlled asthma is associated with outcomes very close to those of women without asthma.[1][3] That is the whole argument for continuing your inhalers in one sentence: the medicines protect the pregnancy, and the disease, when it is allowed to smoulder, is what threatens it. It is also why attacks are treated urgently and fully in pregnant women rather than cautiously and half-heartedly.
Breathless in pregnancy: asthma or just pregnancy?
Feeling short of breath is common in normal pregnancy. Hormones increase your drive to breathe from early on, and later the growing bump presses on your diaphragm, so many women feel “air hungry” on stairs or lying flat. That physiological breathlessness comes without wheeze, cough, chest tightness or night waking, and your reliever makes little difference to it. New wheeze, a nagging cough at night, or needing your reliever more than before point back to asthma and deserve a review. Sudden severe breathlessness, breathlessness with chest pain, or a swollen painful leg are different again: pregnancy raises the risk of blood clots, and that combination needs same-day in-person care, not an inhaler adjustment.
Which asthma care might the doctor recommend in pregnancy?
Care follows your level of control. This is the decision framework the doctors use, aligned with international asthma guidance:[1]
Swipe sideways to compare →
| Presentation | Likely first step | Suitable for online care? | When referral or in-person care is needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Well controlled on your usual inhalers, pregnant or planning pregnancy | Continue treatment unchanged; a review each trimester to confirm control | Yes | Only if control slips or new symptoms appear |
| Reliever needed three or more times a week, or night waking | Preventer review and step-up, with early follow-up | Usually yes | Worsening despite the step-up, or anything needing physical examination |
| Flare-up building over days, often after a cold | Prompt review and action-plan step-up; steroid tablets when assessment supports them | Sometimes, same day | Severe symptoms, falling peak flow or no rapid improvement: in-person care today |
| Breathing problems never formally diagnosed as asthma | Likelihood assessment, then referral for lung-function testing | Initial assessment only | Diagnosis needs in-person tests, chosen carefully in pregnancy[2] |
| Attack now: severe breathlessness, sentences broken by breaths | Call 112, use your reliever as your plan directs, say you are pregnant | No | Every suspected attack is an emergency, in person |
Not sure which row is your asthma? A doctor can tell you in one consultation.
See available times →Treatment options for asthma in pregnancy
What you can do yourself
Take your preventer every day, including the weeks you feel completely well; stopping when symptoms settle is the most common reason they return. Check your inhaler technique, and use a spacer if one is advised, since it makes every dose more forgiving. If you smoke, this is the single most powerful moment to stop, for your asthma and your baby at once, and your doctor can point you to support that is safe in pregnancy.[4] Accept the flu and whooping cough vaccinations offered during pregnancy, treat hay fever properly, manage reflux with simple measures such as smaller meals, and keep your written action plan where you can find it mid-symptom.[2]
Prescription treatment
A prescription is never issued without a consultation, renewals included, because each one follows a control check. In pregnancy the framework is deliberately conservative in one direction only: keep what works. Inhaled corticosteroid preventers are continued throughout, with budesonide having the largest body of pregnancy data, and the class as a whole considered compatible; switching brands mid-pregnancy without reason is avoided.[1] Salbutamol relievers are used exactly as outside pregnancy. Combination inhalers containing a corticosteroid plus formoterol are likewise continued when they are what controls you. Montelukast is not usually started fresh in pregnancy, but if it is clearly part of what keeps your asthma controlled, guidance supports continuing it after a doctor’s review.[1] Short courses of steroid tablets for flare-ups are given when needed: withholding them risks the exact low-oxygen scenario everyone is trying to avoid.[1] Biologic injections for severe asthma are specialist decisions, made jointly with your obstetric team, and where they are in play the online doctor refers rather than improvises.
Special situations
Labour, birth and afterwards
Asthma attacks during labour are rare, and having asthma does not decide how you give birth; keep taking your inhalers as normal through labour and bring them to the maternity unit.[1] After the birth, your asthma usually drifts back towards its pre-pregnancy pattern within months. Standard inhaled treatments are considered compatible with breastfeeding, so the “keep taking them” rule survives delivery intact; book a review a few weeks after birth so doses can be adjusted if pregnancy changed your control.
Planning a pregnancy with asthma
The ideal review happens before the positive test. If you are planning a pregnancy, book an asthma review to get control tight, technique checked and your plan written down, so that the first trimester starts from stability rather than firefighting. If you are reading this already pregnant and your last review is a distant memory, that is the single most useful appointment to book this week.
When asthma in pregnancy is treated online, and when you need in-person care
Treated online: asthma reviews at any stage of pregnancy; renewal of established preventer and reliever inhalers after a control check; guideline-based step-ups with early follow-up; inhaler technique coaching on camera; written action plans updated for pregnancy; planning ahead for pollen season or winter infections; and reviews after an attack, once in-person care is complete, so the plan that let it happen gets fixed.
In-person care: any suspected attack is a 112 call, never a video appointment. Severe or repeatedly worsening asthma in pregnancy belongs with a respiratory specialist working alongside your obstetric team, and frequent steroid tablet courses are exactly the trigger for that referral.[1] A first-ever asthma diagnosis needs in-person lung-function testing, which the doctor refers you for rather than guessing.[2] Sudden breathlessness with chest pain or a swollen leg goes to same-day in-person care because of pregnancy’s higher clot risk, and breathlessness with severe headache, visual disturbance or new swelling of your face and hands goes urgently to your midwife or maternity unit, because pre-eclampsia can masquerade as “just feeling puffed”. Alongside asthma, the doctors assess the full range of pregnancy conditions online, and the main Mobi Doctor asthma page covers reviews, technique and action plans outside pregnancy in more depth.
When to get in-person care
Call 112 immediately for signs of an asthma attack: severe breathlessness or wheeze, being unable to finish sentences in one breath, a reliever that is not helping, blue or grey lips or fingertips, exhaustion or confusion. Sit upright, keep using your reliever as your action plan directs, and tell the call handler you are pregnant. Contact your midwife or maternity unit urgently, the same day, if your baby’s movements reduce or change, if you have bleeding or constant abdominal pain, or if breathlessness comes with severe headache, vision changes or sudden swelling of your face, hands or feet. Sudden breathlessness with chest pain or a swollen, painful leg needs emergency assessment for a blood clot: call 112 rather than waiting.
How Mobi Doctor works
- Book a time that suits you: open daily 7am–11pm CET. You can see a doctor over video, usually within 15 minutes. No subscription, exact price up front.
- Speak to a licensed doctor about asthma in pregnancy: a private video call from anywhere in Europe, with your inhalers within reach so the doctor can check your technique.
- Leave with your plan: everything agreed before you hang up: your plan, and a prescription to use at a pharmacy near you where medication is clinically right for you. If your doctor decides you need to be seen in person, you get a full refund.
No sign-up needed
Not sure it’s asthma? Tick every symptom you have to see each page that mentions it. It finds the right page, not a diagnosis: a doctor gives you that on a video call. If you have an emergency sign listed on this page, call 112 instead.
Tap the body — an area or a point — to browse symptoms anywhere
Similar symptoms, different condition? Eczema in Pregnancy and Hay Fever in Pregnancy can start the same way. Compare them, or look up any other symptom in the full symptom checker.
Frequently asked questions about asthma in pregnancy
What is asthma in pregnancy, and why does it change?
Asthma in pregnancy is the same inflammation and narrowing of the airways as before, altered by pregnancy itself: hormones change airway reactivity, the growing womb pushes the diaphragm up, reflux and nasal congestion become commoner and both aggravate asthma, and some women cut their inhalers out of misplaced caution. The result is unpredictable, with roughly a third worsening, a third improving and a third unchanged, which is why pregnancy is a reason for closer review.
What are the symptoms that asthma control is slipping in pregnancy?
Needing your reliever three or more times a week, waking at night with wheeze, cough or chest tightness, breathlessness that stops you doing what you did last month, a peak flow drifting below your best, and more reliever use with colds. Normal pregnancy breathlessness comes on gradually with exertion and does not wheeze or wake you; asthma does both, and responds to the reliever.
Can an online doctor prescribe asthma inhalers during pregnancy in the EU?
Yes, after a consultation. The doctor reviews your asthma control, technique and action plan by video, renews established inhalers or steps treatment up or down when that is right for you, with the prescription usable at a pharmacy near you, and updates your written plan. A prescription is never issued without a consultation, and a current attack is never managed online.
Should I stop my preventer inhaler now that I am pregnant?
No. Keep taking your preventer exactly as prescribed: inhaled steroids act in the airways with little reaching the baby, and stopping them is the commonest reason asthma flares in pregnancy. Uncontrolled asthma lowers your oxygen and your baby's, and is linked to pre-eclampsia and premature birth. If you have already stopped, restart and book a review so control is rebuilt before symptoms take hold.
Is my blue reliever inhaler safe for the baby?
Yes. Salbutamol relievers are considered safe and are used in pregnancy exactly as outside it, including during labour. What matters is how often you need it: three or more times a week suggests your asthma is undertreated, which harms the baby far more than the inhaler could, and is the cue for a review of your preventer rather than more reliever.
What should I do if I have an asthma attack while pregnant?
Sit upright, take your reliever as your action plan directs, and call 112 if it is not helping within a few minutes, you cannot finish a sentence in one breath, or your lips look blue, telling the call handler you are pregnant. Do not wait to see if it passes or treat it more cautiously because of the pregnancy; asthma attacks are treated the same way, promptly, with oxygen and the usual medicines.
Are steroid tablets safe in pregnancy if I have a bad asthma flare-up?
When a flare is significant enough to need them, yes. A short course of steroid tablets is used in pregnancy because a severe asthma attack, with the fall in oxygen it brings, is the greater danger to you and your baby; the small risks of a brief course are outweighed. Repeated courses mean the preventer treatment needs strengthening, and the maternity team is told so blood sugar and the baby's growth are watched.
Will my asthma change during pregnancy, and how long does the change last?
Possibly, in either direction and unpredictably: a third of women worsen, a third improve and a third stay the same, with any worsening most likely between 24 and 36 weeks and improvement common in the last month. Whatever happens, asthma usually returns to its pre-pregnancy pattern within about three months of the birth, and the same pattern tends to repeat in later pregnancies.
What can I do myself to keep asthma controlled while pregnant?
Take the preventer every day even when well, check inhaler technique and use a spacer, keep a written action plan, record peak flow if you have a meter, treat reflux and nasal congestion, have the flu and whooping cough vaccines offered in pregnancy, avoid smoke and known triggers, keep active, and book a review at the first sign of slipping asthma control rather than at renewal time.
How can asthma attacks in pregnancy be prevented?
Prevent asthma attacks by staying on preventer treatment throughout, stepping up early when control slips, treating colds, reflux and rhinitis promptly, avoiding smoking and second-hand smoke, having the flu vaccine, and keeping a reliever with you at all times. Most serious attacks in pregnancy follow stopped or reduced preventer inhalers, so the review that confirms your treatment is right for this stage is the main prevention.
Does asthma affect labour, birth or breastfeeding?
Rarely. Asthma attacks during labour are very uncommon, your reliever and preventer are used as normal, and all usual asthma medicines are compatible with breastfeeding. Tell the maternity team about your asthma and recent steroid courses, because a few labour medicines are chosen differently; a caesarean is not needed for asthma alone, and the baby is at no higher risk at birth when the asthma has been controlled.
Is it asthma or ordinary pregnancy breathlessness?
Pregnancy breathlessness builds gradually from the first trimester, appears with exertion or when the bump crowds the lungs, and eases with rest, without wheeze, cough or night waking. Asthma brings wheeze, chest tightness and cough, varies day to day, wakes you, and improves with the reliever. Sudden breathlessness, chest pain or one-sided leg swelling is neither, and is treated as a possible clot: call 112.
- Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention (2026 update), GINA, Global Initiative for Asthma, 2026.
- Asthma: Clinical Knowledge Summary, NICE, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, revised 2025.
- Asthma, European Lung Foundation with the European Respiratory Society, 2024.
- Asthma: fact sheet, WHO, World Health Organization, 2026.
- Asthma, HSE, Health Service Executive (Ireland), accessed August 2026.
- Asthma and pregnancy, NHS, National Health Service (UK), reviewed May 2024.
This page is for information only and is not a substitute for a medical consultation. Guideline links are provided for transparency; treatment decisions are made with your doctor and antenatal team.
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